One of the most famous humorists in world literature, O. Henry created a unique panorama of American life at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, in grotesque situations, he conveyed the contrasts and paradoxes of his era, which opened up space for people with business acumen, whom the game of chance raises to the top of success, then throws to the very bottom of life. “Miss Medora Martin arrived with a box of paints and an easel in New York from the village of Harmony, which lies at the foot of the Green Mountains. Miss Medora looked like an autumn rose, which was spared by the first frosts that did not spare her other sisters. In the village of Harmony, when Miss Medora went to depraved Babylon to study painting, it was said that she was a mad, desperate, willful girl. In New York City, when she first showed up at a cheap boarding house on the West Side, the residents asked each other, “Who is this pretty old maid?” . Home »